He is best known as the only escort fighter pilot of the Yamamoto mission to have survived the war. They served as convoy escorts during World War II. In China, more than 10 million people died during the course of the war with Japan in a conflict largely unnoticed by the rest of the world. On 27 October 2009, JS Kurama collided with a South Korean container ship under the Kanmonkyo Bridge in the Kanmon Straits off the coast of Japan.